60 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1863. 



information can ascertain all he wishes to know about thorn, by consulting the 

 publications to be found in your Library or elsewhere. Your first effort, in so 

 far as the articles were contributed from your own resources, was but a meagre 

 and meaningless show ; your more recent Annual Exhibitions have been not 

 only among the most brilliant and interesting entertainments that our beautiful 

 inland city can boast of, but they have come to be horticultural schools, rich in 

 useful instruction, which the stranger carries home with him a hundred miles 

 away. 



The prize Fruits so much admired upon your tables, are now no longer, as 

 formerly, regarded as special gifts which nature bestows upon her lucky favorites. 

 On the contrary, these beautiful productions, like any other good crop, are the 

 legitimate results of a certain adaptation of means to the desired end. The 

 process has ceased to be a mystery, and our intelligent cultivators, so far from 

 feeling their way in the dark, almost laugh at the possibility of failure. For 

 example, I think I might name half a dozen gentlemen now in the Hall, who 

 would not fear to put themselves under bonds to produce, in a reasonable time, 

 as good specimens as the " best twelve Bartlett Pears " which you honor with 

 a twenty-five dollar premium. Directions how to take such a prize indeed 

 might be written out as clear and straightforward as those which a traveller 

 reads upon a guide-board. What is essential is mostly comprised under the 

 heads of a rich soil, of four or five times the depth of ordinary cultivation ; 

 under-drainage, where the subsoil requires it ; cultivation or mulchiny of the 

 surface; thinning out of the fruit; shelter from the wind, and judicious 

 pruning. That the process smells of money, is not strange ; for a great deal 

 of what is valuable in this world emits the same odor. 



Since the removal of the Library to one of the ante-rooms of the Hall, in 

 the spring of 1862, we have held here, on the days when the Library was open, 

 informal weekly exhibitions, and we have thus brought under criticism most of 

 the products of our gardens and orchards, which are out of season at the time 

 of our Annual Fair. Combined with these we have two series of pleasant, 

 social conversations on the subject of Fruits. Elaborate reports of the doings 

 of these meetings — thanks to the graceful pen of our accomplished and efficient 

 Secretary — have been ])ublished, both in the daily and weekly editions of the 

 Massachusetts Spy, to the no inconsiderable benefit of the community. It is 

 well-known that there'are a considerable number of cultivated Fruits which 

 succeed well in one section of the country, while proving worthless in other 

 sections, even at no great distance, and in the same latitude. I, therefore, 

 consider the names of the Fruits which have stood the test of your discussions, 

 of sufficient importance to justify their repetition on this occasion : 



THE WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S SELECT LIST OF FRUITS. 



Apples. Early — Red Astrachan, Sweet Bough, Duchess of Oldenburg, 

 Williams' Early Red, *Worcester Spy, *Summer Pippin. 



Autumn — Gravenstein, Porter, *Shepard's Sweeting, *Leland's Spice, *Fam- 

 euse, Hubbardston Nonsuch. 



